Women Priests...?

Second, the faith and practice of the early Church is normative for the Church of all ages. But the early Church, following the pattern set by Jesus, admitted only men to the offices of presbyter and bishop. Therefore the Church today must continue to do the same. If the early Church ordained only men to the presbyterate, it was not simply because the culture of the times excluded women from roles of religious leadership. Many pagan religions at that time employed priestesses.

Response: The fact that the early Church chose only men as bishops and presbyters is not based on any immutable law binding the Church in later times but reflects the influence of the male dominant cultures in which the Church had its origin and early development. In Israel, only men were allowed to serve as priests and elders of the people, just as only males were allowed to attend Jewish synagogue services. Despite the presence of priestesses in some pagan religions of that time, from which many early converts were drawn, all of the cultures which helped to shape the early Church were male dominant. Since we live in a different culture, we are not bound by these practices of a by-gone-day.

In Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching